The Bank Policy Institute, representing major Wall Street banks including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, is considering a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The legal threat follows the OCC’s reinterpretation of rules to grant national trust bank charters to cryptocurrency and fintech firms. Banking groups argue this allows companies like Circle and Ripple to operate nationwide with bank-like powers without facing the same stringent regulatory oversight as traditional lenders.
The Bank Policy Institute is weighing a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its move to grant national trust charters to crypto and fintech firms. Banking groups warn the licensing push could allow crypto firms to offer bank-like services nationwide without facing the same regulatory oversight as traditional banks.
The OCC, led by Trump appointee and former crypto executive Jonathan Gould, effectively lowered the bar for companies to obtain these charters. Firms including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Crypto.com, and the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial have filed or received conditional approvals. The BPI previously warned that “allowing firms to choose a lighter regulatory touch while offering bank-like products could blur the statutory boundary of what it means to be a ‘bank,’ heighten systemic risk and undermine the credibility of the national banking charter itself.”
Last October, Gould told the Blockchain Association’s policy summit that efforts to block crypto custody from the federal system were “a recipe for irrelevance,” defending more than $2 trillion in existing digital custodial activity at national trust banks. The American Bankers Association has urged the OCC to slow its charter approvals while stablecoin and digital asset regulatory frameworks remain unfinished. Pointing to the collapses of FTX and Celsius in 2022, the ABA warned the OCC to “be patient, not measure its application decisioning progress against traditional timelines.”
